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The Journey to Working from Home Begins

When you’re about to have a child, you get a lot of different advice from the people around you. And sometimes from complete strangers as well. The very visible signs of impending parenthood seem to make people think it’s okay to give you advice on the very common human state of becoming a parent. Some of their advice may be true and some may be completely cockeyed. It all depends on how you ultimately experience being a parent.

The truest piece of advice I received? “Your life will never be the same.” A vague and sweeping statement, but true in so many ways. I’m certain I’ve never lived on so little sleep in my life (and to me, sleep is more vital than any other necessity in life. I love sleep). I’m also certain I’ve never loved another human being the way I love my son. The thing about certainty is that it’s so easily shattered.

Before I became a parent, I was sure I’d never want to be a stay-at-home mom. But after my three month maternity leave, I was suddenly certain I did not want to leave my son for 40 hours per week and I’d certainly gained new respect for parents who stay home with their children.

Handing in my resignation and staying home, unfortunately, is not an option for me. Even if we economize, my family still needs my paycheck. I was able to cut back to a four-day workweek, but 32 hours is still too long to be away from my child every week. Besides, I would love to have a second child but childcare for one, let alone two, kids just isn’t in our budget.

I’m not the sort, however, to just suck it up and deal with it. I like to get my way (youngest child, only girl, a little bit spoiled…) but I don’t mind working hard to get what I want. I never expect anyone to just give me what I want.

So the ultimate solution to my dilemma? Find a way to stay at home but earn the income my family needs. Working from home will allow me to spend the time with my son that I crave but it will also cut out our daycare expenses. This means that the one big obstacle to kiddo #2 is no longer a hurdle.

Of course, it’s never that easy, is it? Not just any work from home option will do. It’s been several months since I decided I ultimately want to work from home, but I still head off to work four days per week. My journey is to find just the right work from home opportunity and that’s what this blog is about.

Whether you want to work from home to be with your children, like me, or you like being able to work in your pajamas or you like living in the middle of nowhere but still need income, the journey and the goal are the same: freedom from the workplace. Through this blog, I will diary my journey to full-time employee to work-from-home mom. I’ll be sharing lots of tips to help others along the road to working from home including: deciding if you’re cut out to work from home and discovering what kind of work from home position is right for you.